Industrial food processing systems exist to both cook (i.e., heat) and freeze (i.e., cool) various types of food products before packaging and shipping the food products to distributors. In large-scale industrial applications, it is desirable to process (i.e., heat or cool) large quantities of food product in a short period of time while trying to maintain a high quality, uniformity, and yield of the food product.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a conventional food processing system 10 to cool or heat a food product. The conventional food processing system 10 includes a heat exchanger 20 having a coil 25, a circulation fan or blower 30, and a vertically oriented spiral stack 40 having an internal conveyer belt to move the food product vertically through the stack.
During operation, the fan 30 pulls air into the heat exchanger 20 and through the coil 25 which may be cooled or heated. As a result, the air passing over the coil 25 is cooled or heated and passes out of the heat exchanger 20 and into one end of the stack 40. The heated or cooled air passes through the multiple tiers of the conveyer belt within the stack 40 and out the other end of the stack 40 and towards the fan 30. As a result, the food product within the stack 40 is heated or cooled (e.g., cooked or frozen).
The circulation fan 30 is responsible to circulate the air within the system 10 through the heat exchanger 20 and the stack 40. However, as the air comes out of the fan 30 and passes through the heat exchanger 20, the air loses velocity. Also, as the air is pulled through the stack 40, it further loses velocity. The loss in velocity of air through the system 10 can contribute to reduced efficiencies in heating or cooling the food product within the stack 40 and result in poor quality control of the food product. For example, the air flowing through the stack 40 may become non-uniform creating hot spots and cool spots within the stack 40.
Other food processing systems and methods are described below in the following patents.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional, traditional, and proposed approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.